Okay, sweetie, Julie said after the imp was gone. Feed in your vision now and we’ll deal with it first and see where to go next from there.

Right. Emily said. There was a pause, then more images began flowing into the merge. As Emily had said, her premonition had given her an aerial view of the school and its surroundings, allowing them to see the moment the attack would be launched: just as dusk was turning to full night.

Well that’s good, Julie said. We know the time exactly which will help with planning.

And we have plenty of time to evacuate the non-combatants, Sonia added. That’s critical. I saw a lot of kids getting caught up in the fight in mine.

Yes, we definitely want to make sure they’re safe, Julie agreed. And I see why the kids got caught up; they hit the houses first. So let’s start with that. Who was in the houses in their visions?

***

Daniel was talking to his father when one of Julie’s imps appeared and flew straight to Alexandra. Matthias immediately held up his hand to pause the conversation and turned to her.

“An imp already?” he said. “I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not.”

“We’ll soon know.” Alexandra absorbed the imp, She was silent for a long moment before nodding. “A good thing, I think. They’ve identified both where they are currently keeping the fake Robert and where he’ll be once the attack starts. There’s also details of the security young Emily scryed out at the base where he is. Now we have coordinates, we can probably find out more ourselves.”

“Do we have any clairvoyants left to scry?” Matthias asked. â€œI thought they all went to Silenia for the clarification.â€

“Of course we do.” Alexandra looked exasperated. “Not many, maybe, but me for one. Not all clairvoyants are prone to premonitions, you know.” She looked around. “Who has scrying skills?” A handful of people raised their hands and she nodded. “There, see, that should be enough.” She gestured them over. “We need to check out these coordinates.” There was a pause as she dropped them into their heads. “See if we can find a way past the security to get to Robert.” She turned and looked at Daniel thoughtfully. “And I sense you have some scrying ability as well, young man. It’s a hell of a time for a lesson but we could do with your help.”

“Of course I’ll help,” Daniel said. “Though I’ve never done it before so I hope I won’t hold you back.”

“Don’t worry, you won’t,” she said. “Though we may run you ragged.â€ She got to her feet and gestured to the ones who had raised their hands. â€œCome on, let’s move to one of the classrooms to do this, so we can have some quiet.â€ She paused again then looked back at Matthias and flashed some more coordinates to him. â€œAnd Caroline says that these are the places where the attackers will be staging from â€“ could you organise people to stake them out and tell us when they move into place?â€

â€œOf course,â€ Matthias said. He looked over to where Andrew was sitting with Naria and a speculative expression crossed his face. â€œAh! I just had an idea. Naria, if it does come to a fight, do you think you could knock the soldiers out?â€

â€œGood,â€ he said. â€œNext question would you mind shifting to your dragon form and taking Drew and me to do some aerial reconnaissance of these staging areas?â€

â€œOf course,â€ she said. â€œThough we may want to go outside first or I won’t fit through the door.â€

â€œGood, good,â€ Alexandra said. â€œLet’s meet back here in an hour, compare notes and come up with a plan. Everyone else keep moving the kids and other non-combatants through the portal to Scilly.â€